This delightful, accessible, engaging book can help children learn how to work mindfully with challenging emotions. Wisely honoring the need for both self-compassion and self-control, it shows them how to recognize, understand, and accept their difficult feelings while behaving in ways that respect the needs of others.
Ronald D. Siegel, Psy.D.
Assistant Professor of Psychology, Harvard Medical School
Author of The Extraordinary Gift of Being Ordinary:
Finding Happiness Right Where You Are
Magic of RAIN offers children (and adults) a simple and potentially life-changing pathway for handling difficult emotions.
Tara Brach
Speaker, Psychologist, RAIN meditation leader and Founder of the Mindfulness Teacher Certification Program
Author of Radical Acceptance and Radical Compassion
Magic of RAIN introduces children to the wisdom of their inner world through whimsical cloud people that visually represent different emotional parts. Similar to IFS principles, the story invites young readers to recognize and connect with angry, hurt, and sad parts with kindness and compassion. This beautiful book provides children with a tangible method for self-regulation while nurturing emotional resilience. What a gift for families!
Steffi Bednarek
Trauma and IFS psychotherapist and director of the Centre for Climate Psychology
“‘Behind every difficult feeling is a part of you that’s hurt,’ says Yaya—and
Dipl.-Psych. Ana Cristina Pires
that’s the truth. Likewise, behind every book that gently helps children
navigate their emotions, as beautifully and succinctly as Magic of RAIN
does, is an author with a part that is kind, wise, and capable of showing
a highly recommended, practical path to transform emotional storms
into sunny self-compassion—and that’s the truth of Magic of RAIN.“
Systemic Psychotherapist for
Individuals, Couples and Families, IFS-Therapist and Supervisor
Children yearn to be seen. This wonderful book provides exactly that through its elegant and profound writing, offering this gift with remarkable generosity.
Ilana Weiser-Senesh
Author, playwright, screenwriter and editor
As a kindergarten director, I see children every day struggle with their emotions, especially the ones that are still regarded as bad by society. If they don’t learn how to deal with these emotions, they might find it difficult to express their needs. This could lead them to developing ways of coping that result in violent behaviour. A few years ago, I attended Pinelopi’s “Mindful Care Giving Course,” and learned how to use RAIN with the children at work. At first, I helped the children to identify their emotions (Recognize) and gave them time to process them (Allow). After a while, I witnessed how important it is to actually feel the emotion (Investigate) and how this reveals hidden needs (nurture). RAIN is truly magical and I am so glad that there is now a book to guide other caregivers, parents, and teachers through this experience. The lovely watercolour pictures go perfectly well with the funny and heart-warming words in the book.
Yann Guyomard
Here is my special tip: you can also try RAIN to explore happy emotions with children, and it works wonders too!
Early Childhood Educator and Kindergarten Director, Berlin
As children grow, they can sometimes be over-whelmed by unexpected and strong emotions. Lucky is the child like Faye in this charming story, who has a wise and caring Grandmother to guide her. Sometimes home-life is less than ideal and then it becomes the responsibility of the teachers, childcare workers, and relatives to support their emotional growth. This simple method of RAIN takes a complex emotion and breaks it down into steps every youngster can learn and use. This process also helps validate their feelings, rather than avoiding or ignoring their emotions, this in turn allows the child to move through the moment. With practice and over time this leads to healthy emotional intelligence.
Marianna Kim Huffine
I highly recommend Pinelopi Sioni’s book to every parent, educator, and those who work around children to help them navigate their emotions. I wish I had had this book for my own students and my son as he was growing up.
Educator at ASM and Sacramento Unified school District
What better enables a child psychologist to connect than joining these young protagonists and feeling the emotional raindrops falling within? By following the letters one by one—R-A-I-N—we discover a powerful approach.
Dr. David Senesh
As (grand)parents, therapists, and educators, we practice allowing ourselves to RAIN our mirror neurons and empathically attune to the child beside us. Immersed in Penelope’s narrative and Avital’s illustrations, we move fluidly between our own experience, the child’s world, and the inner child within ourselves—helping to release emotions and gently allowing the emotional storm to subside.
This mirrors the heart of expressive psychotherapy with children: we observe, recognize, and witness their internal landscape, then create space for it to be fully experienced, processed, and communicated. Through this journey, children develop reflection and insight, nurtured by authentic relationship and opportunities for growth. The author and illustrator have created an intuitive and accessible toolkit for children to thrive as they experience, express, and navigate both their rainy and sunny feelings.
Clinical Psychologist and Child Psychotherapist, specialist in how significant life events and traumas are processed within individuals and across generations in families.